Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6727724" data-attributes="member: 37579">Originally posted by wrecan:The idea that New COke was a &quot;marketing ploy&quot; is a conspiracy theory and a bad one.The Chairman of Coke lost his job over this. When he died of cancer several years later, he was still insisting to anybody who would listen that New Coke was better tasting than &quot;Coke Classic&quot;.Coke had to do serious rebuilding of relationships with its bottlers.In the end, all that happened is Coke ended up with the same market share it had vis-a-vis Pepsi before the New Coke flare up. New Coke sales hurt Coke for one quarter and the re-release of Coke Classic made up for the losses.As marketing ploys go, it was a flop. They lost money and then broke even.Sometimes companies make mistakes. New Coke was a mistake. It didn't kill the company, but it was a mistake.No, it didn't. The developer had market research and taste tests and focus groups that said this was going to be huge. They thought they were going to cripple Pepsi. They had no idea it would almost sink them.The &quot;They planned it all along&quot; theory has got to be one of the best counter-spins I've ever seen.&quot;Hey, guys, we really messed up. Now, not only is the brand tarnished, the chairman canned, our bottlers in revolt, but our reputations as some of the most brilliant minds in business is ruined. What do we do?&quot;&quot;I know! Let's tell everyone it was a 'marketing ploy' and we intended it all along. We'll call it free publicity.&quot;&quot;Brilliant!&quot;&quot;But guys, anybody who looks at the sales data will see that we lost money.&quot;&quot;Shh. Nobody looks at data but MBA candidates. And they're morons. After all, some MBA told us to release New Coke.&quot;&quot;Good point.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 6727724, member: 37579"] [b]Originally posted by wrecan:[/b] The idea that New COke was a "marketing ploy" is a conspiracy theory and a bad one. The Chairman of Coke lost his job over this. When he died of cancer several years later, he was still insisting to anybody who would listen that New Coke was better tasting than "Coke Classic". Coke had to do serious rebuilding of relationships with its bottlers. In the end, all that happened is Coke ended up with the same market share it had vis-a-vis Pepsi before the New Coke flare up. New Coke sales hurt Coke for one quarter and the re-release of Coke Classic made up for the losses. As marketing ploys go, it was a flop. They lost money and then broke even. Sometimes companies make mistakes. New Coke was a mistake. It didn't kill the company, but it was a mistake. No, it didn't. The developer had market research and taste tests and focus groups that said this was going to be huge. They thought they were going to cripple Pepsi. They had no idea it would almost sink them. The "They planned it all along" theory has got to be one of the best counter-spins I've ever seen. "Hey, guys, we really messed up. Now, not only is the brand tarnished, the chairman canned, our bottlers in revolt, but our reputations as some of the most brilliant minds in business is ruined. What do we do?" "I know! Let's tell everyone it was a 'marketing ploy' and we intended it all along. We'll call it free publicity." "Brilliant!" "But guys, anybody who looks at the sales data will see that we lost money." "Shh. Nobody looks at data but MBA candidates. And they're morons. After all, some MBA told us to release New Coke." "Good point." [/QUOTE]

Verification